Union Anyone?

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user1216

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amr nemsa around here

is your company union? if so, who are you with and are they any good? i've heard all kinds of horror stories from all angles-im just looking for insight
 
No union at the Hospital or the Vollie squad. The one service I work with is possible to be union for individual members but I'm not 100% sure.

MAC4NH, since you work at the MC, don't you guys run the hudson county union?
 
A union will only be as good or bad as its members allow.
 
IAEP. So far I haven't seen anything out of them, really. But, then, I'm a noob at the company.
 
i have worked for two union and two non union shops. i have found that if you're with the right company, you dont need a union and if you're with the wrong company, the union doesnt matter. sorry but i dont see the benefit in spending all that money every month to spend three years negotiating a three percent pay increase.

ive also found that when i've done something worthy of being fired over, the union wouldnt have helped me one bit. when you're caught, you're caught.
 
KEVD18 said:
i have worked for two union and two non union shops. i have found that if you're with the right company, you dont need a union and if you're with the wrong company, the union doesnt matter. sorry but i dont see the benefit in spending all that money every month to spend three years negotiating a three percent pay increase.

ive also found that when i've done something worthy of being fired over, the union wouldnt have helped me one bit. when you're caught, you're caught.
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The point of a union is being able to function as a group, instead of each employee working their own private deal. It can insure that all are treated fairly by the terms of the same contract. Problem is, unions are made up of people and I've seen some really powerful ones and some really sucky ones. The biggest misconception about unions is that its all about the pay raises. An effective union can also help negotiate working conditions, staffing levels, retirement, all sorts of work place issues. But, as I stated earlier, it's only as good as its members,
 
BossyCow said:
The point of a union is being able to function as a group, instead of each employee working their own private deal. It can insure that all are treated fairly by the terms of the same contract. Problem is, unions are made up of people and I've seen some really powerful ones and some really sucky ones. The biggest misconception about unions is that its all about the pay raises. An effective union can also help negotiate working conditions, staffing levels, retirement, all sorts of work place issues. But, as I stated earlier, it's only as good as its members,
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as i said, if you work for the right company, you dont need a union to get those things.

the right boss will strive to make sure the working conditions are adequate, that his employees are being paid a fair wage, that each employee is being treated fairly.

its when you work for the wrong company that you have to argue with your boss to get paid your share and new pants when yours are tapped. the right boss buy the right property and maintains it properly. the wrong boss needs to be forced by the threat of a stike to fix the whole in the roof and buy a new tv for the ready room.

i dont disagree that their is a need for unions in some circumstances. that argument was quashed two hundred years ago. what im saying is that if you put your self in the right circumstances, you dont need one.
 
Non-union at the moment, but will be part of IAFF come Jan 1.
 
VentMedic said:
Majority of those things are already protected by Federal and State laws.
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Vent, sure they are, and most companies know that employees are often willing to work against those protections to either get in good with the boss or to keep a job.

I worked as a union shop steward for some years. I had employees who would work overtime and just quietly keep it off the books because they were afraid to get fired. Bosses who would punish an employee who didn't work an overtime shift by sentencing them to the Siberia of shiftdom for months. There was always the employee who spent their shift babysitting the supervisor's kid or doing personal errands for the boss and was paid back by not having to pull the weekend shift or not do their rotation on graveyard.

Every year we see some landmark case on unfair labor practice. One of the last ones I saw was a big grocery store who had their employees run deliveries on their way home, off the clock. When an employee got into a wreck, while doing a delivery, was it an L&I claim or not? Technically off the clock.. but doing work?

We cannot rely on the laws to protect us, because both employees and employers know how to operate in the grey areas when it suits them.
 
This is where I would tie in the education thread. The more one strives for higher education, the less likely an employer will be able to exploit them.

Except for some RNs, few licensed and educated hospital employees have any desire to become part of an union. Most will allow their national organizations with local chapters do the talking with their data from a legislative standpoint. Nurses do have strong unions but they are single profession specialty which also offers professional enhancement through continued education or CAREER building offerings. They not only argue for benefits but for the status of the PROFESSION of nursing and have effective legislative respresentatives in place.

Many times the unions that represent EMS are spin-offs of blue collar unions such as Boilermakers and Teamsters. These unions were not established for the betterment of the professional status. While they say they want what is better for their members they do not have a vested issue or a stance when it comes to medical legislation.
 
VentMedic said:
This is where I would tie in the education thread. The more one strives for higher education, the less likely an employer will be able to exploit them.

Except for some RNs, few licensed and educated hospital employees have any desire to become part of an union. Most will allow their national organizations with local chapters do the talking with their data from a legislative standpoint. Nurses do have strong unions but they are single profession specialty which also offers professional enhancement through continued education or CAREER building offerings. They not only argue for benefits but for the status of the PROFESSION of nursing and have effective legislative respresentatives in place.

Many times the unions that represent EMS are spin-offs of blue collar unions such as Boilermakers and Teamsters. These unions were not established for the betterment of the professional status. While they say they want what is better for their members they do not have a vested issue or a stance when it comes to medical legislation.
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Actually my union experience comes from a nursing union.
 
BossyCow said:
Actually my union experience comes from a nursing union.
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The primary Nursing unions restrict their members to RNs.

LVNs and CNAs may end up in a spin-off union representing them but it is not the same.

Often LVNs and CNAs are placed in the same union that represents non-licensed staff. There are a couple of nursing unions that do offer to represent them but it rarely is with the same benefits as the primary nursing union which offer educationals and career enhancement benefits as well as the wage negotiations. But when you have a mixed group of differently educated people, some degrees and some certs for entry level, the representation becomes fragmented.

Example:
In California:

RNs go with CNA.

LVNs, CNAs, Environmental Technicians, etc go with SEIU.

That is one reason why other professionals such as RT, OT and PT rarely jump on the union bandwagon because the Boilmakers or Plumbers and Pipefitters union just doesn't "understand". Nor would these professionals want to be with a nursing spin-off union where for many their entry level education surpasses that of the 2 year degreed RN.
 
Part of a union where I am now; but it seems like the union people are in a spitting match with management;
More concerned about how management is making their lives miserable instead of being concerned about the unit in general.
 
VentMedic said:
The primary Nursing unions restrict their members to RNs.

LVNs and CNAs may end up in a spin-off union representing them but it is not the same.

Often LVNs and CNAs are placed in the same union that represents non-licensed staff. There are a couple of nursing unions that do offer to represent them but it rarely is with the same benefits as the primary nursing union which offer educationals and career enhancement benefits as well as the wage negotiations. But when you have a mixed group of differently educated people, some degrees and some certs for entry level, the representation becomes fragmented.

Example:
In California:

RNs go with CNA.

LVNs, CNAs, Environmental Technicians, etc go with SEIU.

That is one reason why other professionals such as RT, OT and PT rarely jump on the union bandwagon because the Boilmakers or Plumbers and Pipefitters union just doesn't "understand". Nor would these professionals want to be with a nursing spin-off union where for many their entry level education surpasses that of the 2 year degreed RN.
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Not my personal experience Vent. Initially there were 3 different locals of the same union. One represented the non patient care staff(admitting, billing, supply) another represented the technical staff (radiology techs, lab, EKG techs and RTs) the third represented the RNs. Eventually all three classifications were rolled into a single contract under the same local where they are currently still being represented. They were all SEIU initially and still are.

Union representation is a reflection of the involvement of the membership. A disinterested, uninvolved membership will result in crappy representation. we were able to form a coalition across the different classifications. We were able to do this when we realized that the management was using the fractured union structure to their benefit and our detriment. We all work together with patients, each taking their own role. Extending that to our relationship with the employer wasn't much of a leap.
 
SEIU is a huge union that represents many, many different people in many different professions. It is Service Employee International Union. You might as well be with Teamsters or Boilermakers.

http://www.seiu.org/splash/

Now that it is election time, you know where the dues are going. And, they will tell you how to vote. There are union fanatics that will pressure anyone who dares to speak up for a candidate that the union does not endorse.

Yeah, great way to spend my money and not even be able to decide who gets it.

It is really disgusting to hear "anti-management" stuff from unions which filter to the members. The communication lines for day to day operations are strained. This is not the 1930s.

If you have no respect for the company you work for and must use anti-management or slander to obtain the contract issues it is time to move on. There are plenty of labor jobs available. Striking and union crap have no place in healthcare as it does affect patient care.
 
johnrsemt said:
Part of a union where I am now; but it seems like the union people are in a spitting match with management;
More concerned about how management is making their lives miserable instead of being concerned about the unit in general.
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Of course what incentive does the management have to better working conditions outside of contract negotiation time? There's no sense in playing any of your cards outside of negotiations. After all, if you give a mouse a cookie, ...
 
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